by Rupe | Jul 19, 2016 | Deep Thoughts, Reflections, Social-Race Issues, what the...?
Jimmie Williams joins demonstrators in a protest outside of City Hall calling on Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign on December 11, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. A recently released video of the shooting of Laquan McDonald by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke has sparked protests and calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez to resign for allegedly trying to cover up the circumstances surrounding the shooting.SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES
I was a grad student at the UCLA film school, getting my MFA in screenwriting, when a consumer-trends company asked me to work for them. Why did they want me? Well, they advised major corporations on how to best situate their products for the African-American consumer market, and in order to do that effectively, the company needed people who understood African-American values and behavior and could turn those factors into macro trends. In essence, my job was to predict the things black people did today to hint at future behavior and, from that info, identify the strategies companies should use to reach black people.
Source: Black America Is Leaving While Staying Put
My Comments: Well written – captures the sentiments of the majority of black folks. We’ve got to start tending our own gardens – there is no sustenance in hope, no love in fear and the hot rage and meanness of racism knows no bounds. We are way too beautiful for this shit!
by Rupe | Jul 10, 2016 | Mad Musings, what the...?
Schools should be held to higher standards than students. If schools irresponsibly impose discipline practices, then those rules (or leaders) should be expelled. However, when it comes to discipline, we give students the cane and schools a slap on the wrist.
Source: Stop Punishing Black Children Just Because They’re Black
Comments: The punishment of black and brown people start early. The devaluing of our lives starts from the earliest ages. This narrative will change – by the hook or the crook.
by Rupe | Jun 5, 2016 | what the...?
There are neighborhoods in Baltimore in which the life expectancy is 19 years less than other neighborhoods in the same city. Residents of the Downtown/Seaton Hill neighborhood have a life expectancy lower than 229 other nations, exceeded only by Yemen. According to the Washington Post, 15 neighborhoods in Baltimore have a lower life expectancy than North Korea.
Source: The most racist areas in the United States
My Comments: It is so tiring to read these reports. But just as tiring as it is, it is just as necessary. Get over it already would be easy if the shit stopped, but it hasn’t and as long as it continues – the fight against it will continue and the words will be said and printed.
by Rupe | May 24, 2016 | what the...?
It’s irresistible, enticing and addicting. And, it’s available 24-hours a day all over the world to billions of people. Facebook beckons to users seemingly with a two-prong approach – both the pressure and pleasure to post.We share stories, photos, triumphs and tragedies. It is ingrained into our daily lives so deeply that studies show people check Facebook, on average, 14 times a day.
Source: Spying Secrets: Is Facebook eavesdropping on your phone conversations?
My Comments: WoW! I did not know this. Thanks WFLA…
by Rupe | May 17, 2016 | what the...?
Money pressures lead many to scrimp on textbooks, meals and other expenses.
To reach the Ivy League after growing up poor seems like hitting the jackpot. Students get a world-class education from schools that promise to meet full financial needs without making them take out loans. But the reality of a full ride isn’t always what they had dreamed it would be.
Source: For the poor in the Ivy League, a full ride isn’t always what …
My Comments: Really troubling. No one should go hungry at these rich schools.
by Rupe | May 13, 2016 | what the...?
Has unemployment gone up or down in the Obama era? There’s an objective truth, which Republican voters choose not to believe.
“It’s a fact that unemployment has gone down and the stock market has gone up during the Obama administration,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But GOP voters treat these things more as issues of opinion than issues of fact.”
Source: The persistence of the reality gap matters | MSNBC
My Comments: This sh** is just too irksome. Call it cognitive dissonance or whatever, but it is clear, the reason one group of the electorate would choose to believe bullshit is because they are full of it. The fact is – it really does not matter though, we will have a chance to court disaster again. It wasn’t too long ago the same bitter f**** were running away from the previous administration, fretting that the country faced an existential threat brought on by principles of scarcity, racism and xenophobia espoused then and also now, by so called republicans/ conservatives. Nothing about these folks are republican or conservative. Stripped of these cloak, what we see are a bunch of xenophobes upon whose ignorance the political class is playing this whole game.
No matter, let’s go back to the principles of the previous administration, let’s replay those ideas (still being served up by the current “so called” conservative political class); principles that had us on the brink of a catastrophe; let’s go ahead and drive this Bi*** into the ditch. Maybe it is about time we turn this bus over, maybe only then we can all rise from the bottom together…bring it on.
